Castles and Manors have been somewhat combined in CK2 to be one thing, and Castles have lost a lot of their importance since every baron has a castle.
Castles were expensive as hell but vital to defense, and were pretty much limited to, in CK2 terms, kings and dukes. The current Castle baronies should lose their defensive role they currently occupy and be Manors, with higher tax revenues and some Manorial themed buildings but the fortress element should be changed.
Instead, let's have EU4 style castles where the castle has a zone of control, blocks armies, takes much more to siege, and costs money instead of earning it to maintain.
I would also like to change liege levies to realm levies. Right now you mobilize your vassal armies but this is quite gamey in many circumstances and also weird that usually in a war only the king is participating. Instead of liege levies granting a percentage of your vassal's troops, instead realm levies should take a small percentage of the troops of every holding in the realm and funnel it into the realm's castles. The Castellan of the castle would therefore command not only a location vital for defense and zone of control, but would also command the troops of the realm. Castellans aren't independent and are basically super-commanders, every castle has to have their own Castellan, though Kings, Dukes and Counts command the castle where their capital is, and 50% of realm troops go to that castle. Realm levy troops make up by default 2% of castle, city and bishopric forces, every level of crown authority increases this by 2%, as does every level of levy law, meaning the castles and realm levies can hold a maximum of 20% of the whole realm's forces.
In wartime, beyond the forces they are required to send you in the realm levies, the rest of the realm joins or doesn't join the war and fights under their own banner, like tribal vassals do. This is the middle ages and the military was rather decentralized. This means if everyone in the realm quite likes you, you'll have a ton of armies fighting for you, if they hate you, you might end up fighting by yourself.
A few things, if you are fighting a defensive war, the owner of the title you are defending should always join your war, even if they hate your guts. If the Duke of Normandy loathes you, but you are fighting a defensive war over his county of Evreaux, he will enthusiastically join the war. People with political concerns over that same duke or his rivals, correspondingly, will have to figure out whether they like you more than they hate him :v
Controlling castles becomes a vital interest. If the king controls all the castles in the realm, his vassals have very little power, but if a duke controls a couple castles, they control a good chunk of the military forces. Since the new EU4 castles dynamic was introduced, its absence in CK2 is felt. Castles should be a large financial drain, perhaps costing 2 ducats per fort level to maintain each, so if the king wants to control them all himself, feudal taxes become necessary.
The Fortress mechanic I feel should be changed to this Castle mechanic, with the cheapo 100 ducat castle maybe called a Palisade (garrison = 2000, fort level 1), upgradable to a hill fort at 200 ducats (garrison = 4000, fort level 2) and a proper castle at perhaps 400 ducats (garrison = 8000, fort level 3) and a great castle at 800 (garrison = 16,000, fort level 4) and finally the level 5 fort costs 1600 ducats and has fort level 5 and a 32,0000 man garrison (Constantinople). Castellans command the garrison forces in defensive sieges and don't venture out like commanders do.
Like in EU4, you should not be able to seize territory in a war where you haven't captured any castles. As long as your enemy has a castle remaining in the area contested, the war continues. Conversely, capturing the castle controlling an area basically wins the war.
Castles were expensive as hell but vital to defense, and were pretty much limited to, in CK2 terms, kings and dukes. The current Castle baronies should lose their defensive role they currently occupy and be Manors, with higher tax revenues and some Manorial themed buildings but the fortress element should be changed.
Instead, let's have EU4 style castles where the castle has a zone of control, blocks armies, takes much more to siege, and costs money instead of earning it to maintain.
I would also like to change liege levies to realm levies. Right now you mobilize your vassal armies but this is quite gamey in many circumstances and also weird that usually in a war only the king is participating. Instead of liege levies granting a percentage of your vassal's troops, instead realm levies should take a small percentage of the troops of every holding in the realm and funnel it into the realm's castles. The Castellan of the castle would therefore command not only a location vital for defense and zone of control, but would also command the troops of the realm. Castellans aren't independent and are basically super-commanders, every castle has to have their own Castellan, though Kings, Dukes and Counts command the castle where their capital is, and 50% of realm troops go to that castle. Realm levy troops make up by default 2% of castle, city and bishopric forces, every level of crown authority increases this by 2%, as does every level of levy law, meaning the castles and realm levies can hold a maximum of 20% of the whole realm's forces.
In wartime, beyond the forces they are required to send you in the realm levies, the rest of the realm joins or doesn't join the war and fights under their own banner, like tribal vassals do. This is the middle ages and the military was rather decentralized. This means if everyone in the realm quite likes you, you'll have a ton of armies fighting for you, if they hate you, you might end up fighting by yourself.
A few things, if you are fighting a defensive war, the owner of the title you are defending should always join your war, even if they hate your guts. If the Duke of Normandy loathes you, but you are fighting a defensive war over his county of Evreaux, he will enthusiastically join the war. People with political concerns over that same duke or his rivals, correspondingly, will have to figure out whether they like you more than they hate him :v
Controlling castles becomes a vital interest. If the king controls all the castles in the realm, his vassals have very little power, but if a duke controls a couple castles, they control a good chunk of the military forces. Since the new EU4 castles dynamic was introduced, its absence in CK2 is felt. Castles should be a large financial drain, perhaps costing 2 ducats per fort level to maintain each, so if the king wants to control them all himself, feudal taxes become necessary.
The Fortress mechanic I feel should be changed to this Castle mechanic, with the cheapo 100 ducat castle maybe called a Palisade (garrison = 2000, fort level 1), upgradable to a hill fort at 200 ducats (garrison = 4000, fort level 2) and a proper castle at perhaps 400 ducats (garrison = 8000, fort level 3) and a great castle at 800 (garrison = 16,000, fort level 4) and finally the level 5 fort costs 1600 ducats and has fort level 5 and a 32,0000 man garrison (Constantinople). Castellans command the garrison forces in defensive sieges and don't venture out like commanders do.
Like in EU4, you should not be able to seize territory in a war where you haven't captured any castles. As long as your enemy has a castle remaining in the area contested, the war continues. Conversely, capturing the castle controlling an area basically wins the war.
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